Thecuriousmanspodcast

Matt Crawford speaks with author Corey Mead about his book, The Hidden History of The White House: Power Struggles, Scandals, and Unforgettable Moments in American History. Mead dives into the history of this amazing building and takes us back in time. From its design, construction and rebuilding to those who dines there and those that swam there. Many fail to realize just how important a symbol the White House is, and this book is the perfect antidote to that complacency. 

Matt Crawford speaks with author Ryan Hampton about his book, Fentanyl Nation: Toxic Politics and America's Failed War on Drugs. The American overdose crisis has reached record-breaking heights; preventable overdoses are now responsible for more annual deaths than traffic accidents, suicide, or gun violence. Fentanyl―a potent, inexpensive, and easy-to-manufacture synthetic opioid―has thoroughly contaminated the drug supply, and while it frequently makes front page news across the country, it remains poorly understood by policymakers and the public. Why, despite all of our efforts to raise awareness and billions of dollars of investments, does this emergency keep getting worse? In Fentanyl Nation, recovery advocate Ryan Hampton separates the facts from the fiction surrounding Fentanyl, and shows how overdose deaths are ultimately policy failures. Instead of investing in education, harm reduction, effective treatment, and recovery, we have doubled down on more police, more incarceration, and harsher penalties for those caught in the grip of addiction. Yet history has shown time and time again that it is impossible to arrest our way out of a public health crisis; the government used the same strategy to fight the crack-cocaine epidemic of the 80s and 90s, and it only resulted in racially disparate policing and the destruction of marginalized communities. This urgent and informative manifesto reveals how prejudice, discrimination, and stigma have been codified into our drug laws, and calls for a compassionate and evidence-based approach that would address the core causes of addiction and save countless lives. We can end this crisis, but only if we get out of our own way.

Matt Crawford speaks with author H.W Brands about his book, America First: Roosevelt vs. Lindbergh in the Shadow of War. When Hitler invaded Poland in September 1939 he launched a momentous period of decision-making for the United States. Should America step into the fray of a war that we were separated from by an ocean?          For popular hero Charles Lindbergh, saying no to another world war only twenty years after the first was the obvious answer. Lindbergh had become famous and adored around the world after his historic first flight over the Atlantic in 1927. In the years since, he had emerged as a vocal critic of American involvement overseas, rallying Americans against foreign war as the leading spokesman the America First Committee.          While Hitler advanced across Europe and threatened the British Isles, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt struggled to turn the tide of public opinion. With great effort, political shrewdness and outright deception—aided by secret British disinformation efforts in America—FDR readied the country for war. He pushed the US onto the world stage where it has stayed ever since.          In this gripping narrative and style, H.W. Brands sheds light on a crucial tipping point in American history and depicts the making of a legendary president.

Matt Crawford speaks with author David Tereschchuk about his book, A Question of Paternity: My Life as an Unaffiliated Reporter. Tereshchuk describes his childhood in a small town on the English-Scottish borders to a precocious high-flying career as a TV reporter, first in London, then in New York. During his years as a journalist, he managed to interview some of the most interesting figures of our times, from tyrants to heads of state, but there was one person he never persuaded to open up to him—his mother. The question of who his father was still haunted him. It wasn't until he was in his 50s that she confided to having been raped, aged 15, by a priest – and even then, not all her information was reliable. Alongside his career, the search for his mother’s abuser has haunted him, adding further layers of stress to a life already marked by alcoholism and insecurity. This is his astonishing story, one that deserves to sit alongside those of Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings and David Brinkley, and another revelatory title from EnvelopeBooks.

Matt Crawford speaks with author Emiliana Vegas about her book, Let's Change the World: How to Work within International Development Organizations to Make a Difference. What is an IDO, we may heard of some such as Oxfam or the World Bank but what do they do and how can one start a career within them? Basically, IDOs hold the goal of assisting developing nations in finding solutions to issues that surround and can arise from global inequity and poverty. Vegas describes how she found her way to working among them for decades, what some of her most fulfilling projects were and how the next generation can become involved. 

Matt Crawford speaks with author Ellen Ruppel Shell about her book, Slippery Beast: A True Crime History, with Eels. What is it about eels? Depending on who you ask, they are a pest, a fascination, a threat, a pot of gold. What they are not is predictable. Eels emerged some 200 million years ago, weathered mass extinctions and continental shifts, and were once among the world’s most abundant freshwater fish. But since the 1970s, their numbers have plummeted. Because eels—as unagi—are another thing: delicious. In Slippery Beast, journalist Ellen Ruppel Shell travels in the world of “eel people,” pursuing a burgeoning fascination with this mysterious and highly coveted creature. Despite centuries of study by celebrated thinkers from Aristotle to Leeuwenhoek to a young Sigmund Freud, much about eels remains unknown, including exactly how eels beget other eels. Eels cannot be bred reliably in captivity, and as a result, infant eels are unbelievably valuable. A pound of the tiny, translucent, bug-eyed “elvers” caught in the cold fresh waters of Maine can command $3,000 or more on the black market. Illegal trade in eels is an international scandal measured in billions of dollars every year. In Maine, federal investigators have risked their lives to bust poaching rings, including the notorious half-decade-long “Operation Broken Glass.” Ruppel Shell follows the elusive eel from Maine to the Sargasso Sea and back, stalking riversides, fishing holes, laboratories, restaurants, courtrooms, and America’s first commercial eel “family farm,” which just might upend the international market and save a state. This is an enthralling, globe-spanning look at an animal that you may never come to love, but which will never fail to astonish you, a miraculous creature that tells more about us than we can ever know about it.

Matt Crawford speaks with Credit expert Dr. Michael Grayson about the importance and proper use of Credit and how you use it to build capital. Many of us think of credit as the ability to have large limits and the ability to buy nice things and get perks. Dr. Grayson points out that our credit score is key in how we obtain capital and with that properties and businesses. Give a listen and then check out his website https://www.cdmicredit.org.

Matt Crawford speaks with author Dr. Makhdum Ahmed about his book, Race for a Remedy: The Science and Scientists Behind the Next Life-Saving Cancer Medicine. How does a mere molecule—a chemical structure—become a drug? And, how do we know that it works safely? In a one-trillion-dollar pharmaceutical industry with high-stakes profits and perils, battles are raging every day to successfully bring a molecule to its birth: an FDA-approved medicine. In Race for a Remedy, internationally renowned expert in cancer treatment and drug development Makhdum Ahmed, MD, takes readers behind the scenes of the fascinating and intense world of cancer drug development. Whether it’s a small molecule, a versatile monoclonal antibody, or the fancy, poster child of cutting-edge cell therapy, modern drugs are built upon a centuries-old solid foundation set by the pioneers of medicine and immunology. This revealing book also explores the struggles for current-day pharmaceutical and biotech industries to overtake competitors and make sure their molecule reaches the finish line first. For leading cancer drug developers, that means achieving the ultimate goal: creating the next live-saving cancer medicine.

Readers will also find answers to common questions on drugs, such as:

• How long does it usually take for a drug to come to market?
• When can we expect a cure for cancers like leukemia and lymphoma?
• Are experimental medicines unsafe?
• Given my illness (or that of my loved one), should I join a clinical trial and what are the odds it will help?

A leading medical expert on the frontlines of drug creation, Dr. Ahmed offers basic pharmacological insights, revolutionary science, and the gripping arc of new drug development. Race for a Remedy will change the way readers think about medicine.

Matt Crawford speaks with author R.J Stewart about his book, Crazy Hawk: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller. Deirdre Buford relentlessly pursues the men who took her sister through an America wrecked by the Great Virus and endless civil war. She's forced by circumstances to ally with a nomadic photographer. His gentle decency moves her to the core, but her mission leads her away from the man she's falling in love with and toward a confrontation with the people who hold her sister. To defeat them, she'll need the help of the powerful Nations, a league of indigenous tribes. But there's a problem. The Nations consider Deirdre a deadly enemy. A character driven fast paced thriller that echoes current issues we are dealing with now that will pull you deep into this read.

Matt Crawford speaks with author John Philip Newell about his book, The Great Search. The story of Adam and Eve’s fall from innocence in the Garden of Eden is a mythical account of humanity’s broken relationship with the divine, with Earth, and with themselves. In contrast, Celtic wisdom is built on a strong bond with Earth. In the prophetic figures that Newell draws from, the Garden of Eden represents the inner garden of our souls and the outer garden of Earth, which are seen as essentially one. To live in relation to what is deepest in us is to live in relation to the ground from which we and all things have come. Where are we today, in relation to our true selves and the sacredness of Earth? And how are we to find our way home again? This life-affirming, nourishing book contemplates these questions at a moment of great spiritual awakening, an era characterized by religious exile on a vast scale. We need a new sense of home spiritually, deeply rooted within ourselves and in our shared journey with each other and Earth.